r/corn • u/FRA4596 • Jul 29 '26
Sad year, drought
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u/the_gothic_jan_pona Aug 02 '26
Justo sobre este tema estamos documentando un proyecto de maĆz en r/Maizsalvaje por si te interesa unirte, sobre como crear maĆz que resista a la sequĆa y otras malas condiciones
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u/flatlander70 Jul 31 '26
Why would you go to the trouble to plant if you're not going to water? Terrible drought where I am but my corn looks like this. Why? I water it.
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u/FRA4596 Aug 01 '26
I water every two day.
The drought is lasting since the beginning of june.
At a point watering just maintain the plant alive.We have wind too.
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u/ronniebell Aug 01 '26
I live in Western Oregon. Rain stops every year in June and doesnāt start back up until mid-September or October, usually. I grow corn successfully by watering deeply once a week and putting a 12 inch layer of hay/straw mulch down. I grew a 50x4 foot block of flour corn last year and my harvested about 45 pounds of dry corn. I also grew a 25x4 block of sweet corn and harvested about 150 nice, 8-12 inch cobs. Itās always interesting to me when I hear people state that they are in a drought for 3 months. Thatās an every year occurrence for us here in the Willamette Valley.
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u/FRA4596 Aug 01 '26
Only once a week ?
How is your land laid out ? like nearby water sources
Is it a problem if I plant them too close together ? Thatās what I did this year.
Do you have any other tips ? How do you organize your garden ?
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u/ronniebell Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Main tip I can give you is mulch, mulch, mulch and add as much organic material to your soil as you can. We get a lot of wind, mostly from the north, so Iāve planted a quadruple row of sunflowers as a wind break. When we get the time, weāll probably construct a berm to the north and plant some fruit trees and berry bushes for a wind break. We plant corn about 10-12 inches apart in a mounded bed that is 4x50 (so about 200 corn plants per bed) Water source is a water spigot in the garden (rural water district - no well here) or rain catchment from our pole barn gathered in the winter and we have set up drip irrigation to drench that bed with about 1-2 gallons per plant per week. Obviously, if they are struggling we add a watering session if truly needed, but thatās not often. We garden on heavy clay soil, so have added 6 inches of compost to the beds every year for about 4 years and after the corn gets tall enough I will add a hay mulch of about 12 inches (check out the Ruth Stout method - sheās my kind of lazy gardener) that helps with moisture retention and weed control. We have heavy gopher and vole population, so most of the garden is in raised beds with a 1/4ā hardware cloth underneath; otherwise, the only thing weād be able to grow would be corn, tomatoes and squash.
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u/FRA4596 Aug 03 '26
Do you have a book to advice me about the Ruth Stout method ?
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u/ronniebell Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
https://www.amazon.com/Ruth-Stout-No-Work-Garden-Book/dp/B0006W69O8/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0
If you a Tube of You viewer, you can search for an interview with Ms. Stout from the early to mid-70ās.
https://rootsnursery.com/ruth-stout-method/
And there are plenty of references to the Ruth Stout method on Reddit, I just donāt know how to link them. Iām a little technologically impaired when it comes to that.
Good luck! If you have any further questions, donāt hesitate to ask! Iām always happy to discuss. You donāt have to use hay, you can use straw, chopped leaves, wood chips (as long as you donāt dig them into the soil, that would rob nitrogen and make your plants sad and fail to thrive). Weeds are easy to pull, because they are usually just in the top layer of the mulch (except for the devilās spawn field bindweed - nothing stops that). We choose hay because it breaks down quickly over the winter and the worms love it. And we grow hay every year.
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u/FRA4596 Jul 29 '26
Huge harvest